Tilr releases FREE Gate-12 Volume Modulation Effect with Custom Curves
Tilr has released Gate-12, a free volume modulation plugin for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Gate-12 is the latest iteration of the developer’s Gate-1 plugin. It includes several upgrades that make it more versatile and optimized for live performances. For me, the coolest new feature is Audio Trigger mode. It allows the gate to respond to [...]
View post: Tilr releases FREE Gate-12 Volume Modulation Effect with Custom Curves

HoRNet Planer Clipper Plugin is FREE until May 14
HoRNet has released Planer, a versatile and high-quality audio clipper plugin that you can get for free until May 14 (23:59 Italian time) with the code PLAN10048. I’ve got to say—I’m glad I finally had the time to share a HoRNet freebie on time. They usually run 48-hour flash deals, and I’ve missed several of [...]
View post: HoRNet Planer Clipper Plugin is FREE until May 14

“Steve pursued many fields of interest”: Steve Albini’s estate is selling the “treasures” he amassed throughout his lifeSteve Albini’s estate is selling some of his belongings, a year on from his death at the age of 61.
The esteemed producer, who famously worked with Nirvana as well as PJ Harvey and the Pixies, died of a heart attack last year. He worked on over 2,000 albums across his career. A generous portion of his belongings are currently being sold via a website called Steve Albini’s Closet, with all proceeds directed back towards his estate.

READ MORE: Read Steve Albini’s 1992 letter to Nirvana: “Paying a royalty to a producer is ethically indefensible…there’s no fucking way I would take that money.”

The website is selling weird and wonderful items such as CDs, records, cassettes, zines, books, original art, and much more. The vast majority of items are currently listed as sold out, however, the website will continue to be updated every Friday, and you can sign up to be notified when new items are posted by filling out a simple form.
“Steve Albini’s Closet is an entity created to distribute the treasures amassed by the late polymath, Steve Albini. Steve pursued many fields of interest, and most of them are represented somewhere in his collections,” reads an ‘about’ notice on the website.
“All items purchased are accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity from the collection’s administrator, Byron Coley, and the proceeds are directed towards Steve’s estate. All materials are guaranteed authentic, and listings are updated on a weekly basis. Some items are sold through other sites like Discogs and EBay,” it states.
Following Albini’s sudden passing, NME reshared an interview from 2018, in which he shared his views on record labels and contractual agreements within music that have become ever more fitting to today’s music business, as artists continue to pivot away from the major label model.
In it, he said, “I don’t think we need to concern ourselves too much with the record business, just because the record business is such a trivial aspect in most bands’ careers now. Most bands make their living performing live now, or occasionally lining their music up with other projects like doing film stuff, or sync stuff, or licensing their music for advertising.”
He went on to add, “I’ve long argued against the use of contracts in music – I think they’re counterproductive. They tend to create an adversarial relationship, and they put bands on the defensive. I think they favour the party that has more money and resources, and so they’re no protection for a band. I don’t think contracts are useful.”
Head over to Steve Albini’s Closet to sign up for notifications when new items become available.
The post “Steve pursued many fields of interest”: Steve Albini’s estate is selling the “treasures” he amassed throughout his life appeared first on MusicTech.

Ticketmaster launches all in pricing, other changes in U.S.Ticketmaster launches all in pricing in the U.S. All ticketing, facility and other fees expect taxes will now be displayed upfront when the consumer sees the initial ticket price. Ticketmaster. Continue reading
The post Ticketmaster launches all in pricing, other changes in U.S. appeared first on Hypebot.

SUPERBOOTH 2025: Polyend Mess Polyend were showcasing the Mess at Superbooth 2025, a new pedal that combines a vast collection of modulation, delay and reverb effects with powerful multitrack step sequencer.

“Downright dreadful and awful – true f**king crap”: Jazz pianist Matthew Shipp takes aim at André 3000’s new piano EPMusic is probably the most subjective art form there is, and what sounds like a masterpiece to some may sound like, well, “atrocious shite” to others – as proven in jazz pianist Matthew Shipp’s response to André 3000’s new piano EP.
The new piano-based release, titled 7 Piano Sketches, landed on 5 May, shortly following the former Outkast creative’s bold Met Gala outfit featuring a grand piano strapped to his back. The release also follows on from his 2023 flute album, New Blue Sun, and Shipp is really not a fan.

READ MORE: “There’s a disposable attitude to making music that’s prevalent these days”: Producer Danny L Harle says musicians must take time to reflect on their work

The EP is mostly improvisational, and in fact, André 3000 didn’t originally plan on sharing it. Most of the recordings were made using his iPhone or laptop microphone. At its release, he said in a statement, “These piano pieces weren’t recorded with the intention of presenting them in any formal way to the public. They were personal, at home recordings. I would sometimes text them to my family and friends.”
Despite this, Shipp seemingly thinks we’re all being taken for a ride with the release, and has branded it a “fraud” that “does not even deserve the attention of a critique it is so dreadful”. In a lengthy Facebook post, he says a friend told him about the EP, leading to his review.
“I think it is complete and utter crap, horrific-god awful insipidly wretched nothing,” he writes. “This is some atrocious shite – is he some type of fucking asshole? Is he a complete and utter dilettante? I could go into detail about why each cut is stillborn but why bother, it does not even deserve the attention of critique, it is so dreadful.
“The guy is not a pianist – that is the beginning and the end of it – what an ugly piano sound,” he continues. “What a lack of respect for the discipline by someone who in my opinion is a complete asshole for doing this. It is depressing that this garbage will get any attention because he has a name and fame.”
You can read the full post below:

so a friend called me up and mentioned that Andre 3000 has a piano album out–i was like what . I checked it out on…
Posted by Matt Shipp on Friday, May 9, 2025

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by André Lauren Benjamin (@andre3000)

Shipp has since released another statement in light of his comments going viral, and has clarified, “I am sure Andre is a great guy and I am also sure there is no ill intent whatsoever. I should not have used the word asshole, but I stand by what else I said. He is an amazing hip-hop artist – all I ask is that he respect[s] the art of people who can really do a certain thing.”

the last 24 hours have been out to say the least being a jazz musician and the center of a story involving an extremely …
Posted by Matt Shipp on Sunday, May 11, 2025

André 3000 has not responded to Shipp’s comments at the time of writing.
The post “Downright dreadful and awful – true f**king crap”: Jazz pianist Matthew Shipp takes aim at André 3000’s new piano EP appeared first on MusicTech.

Does opening major tours help emerging artists? Yes and NoConventional wisdom is that the best way for a new act to build an audience is to open for a superstar. But the boost that a emerging artist gets when opening a major tour is not guaranteed.
The post Does opening major tours help emerging artists? Yes and No appeared first on Hypebot.

Flandersh Tech releases FREE Lushtraq Multiband Compressor for Windows
Flandersh Tech has released Lushtraq, a free 4-band multiband compressor and saturator plugin for Windows. Built with Flowstone (formerly SynthMaker), Lushtraq is a Windows-exclusive tool available as a 64-bit VST3 plugin. While it’s a shame MacOS users are left out, this one is definitely worth checking out if you’re on a Windows system. Multitrack compressors [...]
View post: Flandersh Tech releases FREE Lushtraq Multiband Compressor for Windows

“SoundCloud has never used artist content to train AI models”: SoundCloud affirms it is not using your content to train generative AI amid user panicMusicians uploading to SoundCloud recently raised concerns that their content could be being used to train AI, but according to the music sharing platform, there’s been a misunderstanding.
An extract from the Terms of Use , which is publicly outlined on the SoundCloud website, began to cause alarm among artists last week, as it states that “in the absence of a separate agreement that states otherwise, you explicitly agree that your content may be used to inform, train, develop or serve as input to artificial intelligence or machine intelligence technologies or services as part of and for providing the services”. According to the platform itself, this doesn’t refer to AI tech that exists outside of SoundCloud.

READ MORE: Spotify records its highest subscriber net adds since 2020 in first quarter of 2025

While music makers began sharing their worries online just recently, this term has been in place for over a year already, with the last amendment to the Terms of Use article dated as 7 February 2024. Further details in SoundCloud’s ToU left artists under the impression they would need to opt out having their music scraped and fed to generative AI, or that by having third party involvement (such as a label) in the upload of their music, they’d have blanket protection from this term. To gather some clarity on the matter, MusicTech reached out to SoundCloud for further information.

Going to explore this further because there is apparently an option to opt out in settings per song but I can’t find it on the app.I like having a sketchbook sort of place to plop ideas and that’s how I’ve been using SoundCloudI’m likely to be deleting my account and I’m tiny#musicsky #diymusic
— Professeur Whom (@professeurwhom.bsky.social) 2025-05-09T14:07:53.907Z

Well that sucks.Deleted all my tracks this morning.Siiiiiiigh
— Bob Q! (@robotjq.bsky.social) 2025-05-09T14:20:55.843Z

According to SoundCloud, this update to its ToU “was intended to clarify how content may interact with AI technologies within SoundCloud’s own platform”, including personalised recommendations, content organisation, fraud detection, and “improvements to content identification with the help of AI technologies”. It also clarifies that these efforts are aligned with existing licensing agreements and ethical standards.
“SoundCloud has always been and will remain artist-first. Our focus is on empowering artists with control, clarity, and meaningful opportunities to grow. We believe AI, when developed responsibly, can expand creative potential – especially when guided by principles of consent, attribution, and fair compensation,” a spokesperson tells MusicTech. “SoundCloud has never used artist content to train AI models, nor do we develop AI tools or allow third parties to scrape or use SoundCloud content from our platform for AI training purposes. In fact, we implemented technical safeguards, including a ‘no AI’ tag on our site to explicitly prohibit unauthorised use.”
While SoundCloud doesn’t completely rule out any other work with external AI technologies in the future, it does claim that “any future application of AI at SoundCloud will be designed to support human artists, enhancing the tools, capabilities, reach and opportunities available to them on our platform.” The spokesperson adds, “We understand the concerns raised and remain committed to open dialogue. Artists will continue to have control over their work, and we’ll keep our community informed every step of the way as we explore innovation and apply AI technologies responsibly, especially as legal and commercial frameworks continue to evolve.”
For users who still remain uncomfortable with their content being used to inform its internal AI usage, it seems you can still opt out on a track-by-track basis. The Terms of Use outlines that you can in fact “limit and restrict the availability of certain of your content [sic] to other users of the platform, and to users of Linked Services, at any time using the permissions tab in the track edit section for each sound you upload”.
While SoundCloud did not clarify what it means by a separate agreement when asked by MusicTech, the ToU states that “neither SoundCloud nor any third party is allowed to use, copy or reproduce any content delivered to the platform under separate agreements, which is owned or controlled by third party rights holders” for the purposes of informing, training, or as input to AI tech without consent from these rightsholders. This includes not only musical works, but also things like artwork, images, logos, lyrics, metadata, and more.
You can view the full Terms of Use via the SoundCloud website. 
The post “SoundCloud has never used artist content to train AI models”: SoundCloud affirms it is not using your content to train generative AI amid user panic appeared first on MusicTech.

Justin Hayward Discusses the Moody Blues' Biggest Hits and Recently Covering an '80s Pop ClassicMoody Blues' frontman Justin Hayward spoke to AllMusic just as the spring leg of his US tour was winding down and discussed his newest single, if he helped trailblaze prog rock, and the Moody Blues classic that became a US smash hit five years after its initial release.

23andMe customers notified of bankruptcy and potential claims — deadline to file is July 1423andMe, the genetic testing giant once valued in the billions, is now navigating Chapter 11 bankruptcy and notifying millions of current and former customers that they may be eligible to file claims as part of the restructuring process. The company and 11 of its subsidiaries, including Lemonaid Health and LPRXOne, filed for bankruptcy protection on […]

Open Source ELINT Accidentally from NASAYou normally think of ELINT — Electronic Intelligence — as something done in secret by shadowy three-letter agencies or the military. The term usually means gathering intelligence from signals that don’t contain speech (since that’s COMINT). But [Nukes] was looking at public data from NASA’s SMAP satellite and made an interesting discovery. Despite the satellite’s mission to measure soil moisture, it also provided data on strange happenings in the radio spectrum.
While 1.4 GHz is technically in the L-band, it is reserved (from 1.400–1.427 GHz)  for specialized purposes. The frequency is critical for radio astronomy, so it is typically clear other than low-power safety critical data systems that benefit from the low potential for interference. SMAP, coincidentally, listens on 1.41 GHz and maps where there is interference.

Since there aren’t supposed to be any high-power transmitters at that frequency, you can imagine that anything showing up there is probably something unusual and interesting. In particular, it is often a signature for military jamming since nearby frequencies are often used for passive radar and to control drones. So looking at the data can give you a window on geopolitics at any given moment.
The data is out there, and a simple Python script can pull it. We imagine this is the kind of data that only a spook in a SCIF would have had just a decade or two ago.
Jamming tech is secretive but powerful. SMAP isn’t the only satellite to have its mission unexpectedly repurposed.

Donald Trump fires top US copyright official – sending concerning message over music and AITiming of Shira Perlmutter's dismissal, following a report sympathetic to copyright owners on AI, will raise worries over Trump's closeness to Big Tech
Source

Flandersh Tech LushtraqLushtraq is a VST3 plugin (Windows 64-bit) that combines multiband compression and analog-style saturation in a precise, musical processing tool. Designed for mixing and mastering, it offers detailed control across four bands, each with its own character and response. Whether you're shaping vocals, tightening drums, or gluing a full mix, Lushtraq delivers polished, analog-inspired results with minimal-phase crossover integrity and intelligent loudness guidance. Features: 4-band multiband compressor with individually tuned signal paths. Per-band analog-style saturation for warmth and depth. Minimal-phase crossovers for smooth, phase-coherent results. AI-powered Smart Assistant with loudness-based suggestions. External sidechain input, real-time gain reduction meters, and per-band mute. Read More

beyerdynamic release DT 770 PRO X Originally launched in 2024 as a limited-edition model, the DT 770 PRO X are now part of beyerdynamic's permanent range of professional studio headphones.